For hose bib timers, I think melnor may have the closest thing to a delay timer. One that I know of has a delay before the first start than regular start intervals from 2hrs. to 48hrs. It's battery operated and is good if you want to water on a regular schedule.

I'm a good plumber -- I'm quite willing to install into the lines. Between drip lines and main feeder lines, I've got about 10,000 feet of pipe out there.

More background: I've got a startup tree farm (Google my name and 'tree farm' and you will find my web site. Entertaining read.) I grow almost entirely in containers, and sell mostly to reclamation contractors and acreage owners. (OMG, I've got 3 acres of grass.) My niche is trees big enough to miss with a mower, and small enough to plant with a shovel.

I use a combination of fixed overhead sprinklers, (Antelco spinners) oscillating sprinklers (Aquazoom) and drip irrigation. At present I've got 6 hose bibs spread through the pot yard, but only enough water pressure to run two at any one time. A drip zone is set up with a quick connect hose connector, so, unconnect from a sprinkler, connect to a drip zone, twist the timer.

I've tried various water timers, but I've found overall that there is too little consistency in water needs. Central Alberta has a climate in summer than can mean no watering for two weeks at a time, due to steadly short rains, or watering from 6 a.m. to midnight during an August heat wave. With pots there is as much risk of overwatering as underwatering.

So at present I set sprinklers going, and come back in two hours, move them. Come back in two hours. Move them. Come back in two hours. Move them.

If I had a quick to set delay timer, then I could set sprinkers going, go to two drip zones, set for 2 hour delay, water for 2 hours, go to two more drip zones, set for 4 hours delay, water for two hours. NOW I have 6 hours that I can go install some trees, or pick up a batch of pots, or work on the Christmas Tree Maze.

(In actual fact the watering time varies with the needs of that zone. So if it's been cool, I may use much shorter times to keep the dandelions looking fresh.)

So I don't want to REPEAT a schedule. Set delay, set run time, it runs ONCE and shuts off.

Is it possible for you to tee in at a hose bib and install a set of electric valves. If it is I would go with a rain bird clock. That will give you almost any option you can think of from start times,run times and day's.

Gardena hose bib timers have exactly the features you are looking for. I have no connection with the company. I'm just a very satisfied owner. Mine are all at least 10 or more years old, and all still work perfectly. It uses a very small vacuum valve to turn off and on, instead of a ball valve. I haven't seen them in stores in a very long time. I think the exchange rate has made them very expensive. The last one I got, online, was over $100. But they seem to last forever. Because they are not digital, they use knobs to set times, they are extremely easy to use.

I use an Orbit water timer on my sprinkler system and works well. I connect to hose faucet and have a digital timer. They may have one that will work for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: water timer with delay

@Hald

Model number on your Gardena? They make a zillion timers.

@Mike
I'd need a latching valve. I have no electrical power at the site, and it's over a thousand feet from the house. I'll check out the rainbird clocks. Do you have a particular one in mind?

Everyone else:

I've spend hours on this so far.

So far:

Lots of simple mechanical timers. Twist and run.

Lots of programmable timers. You can set a start time and a run time, anywhere from 2 to 6 per day. One of them you set a run time, and can push a button to delay it -- one hour per push, but they all then assume you want to do the same thing the next time.

So the programmable timers have two things against them:

1. They assume you want to do it again the same way tomorrow.

2. Most of them require 20-50 button presses to program.

I think I'm asking for something NOT on the market. Something between the capability of a mechanical timer and a programmable timer.

TWO dials. Twist one to say how long. Twist one to say when. It runs ONCE, then shuts off.

the best rain bird clock for your needs would be the esp4m clock. It's a modular design that starts with 4 stations and is upgradable to 13 stations. You can also go to rainbird.com and check-out the easy-rain battery operated controller for individual valves.

Not sure if this is something like what you are looking for or not, looks pretty darn simple to me! Orbit hose bib timer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Simple faucet timer

@Mike

That rainbird clock requires 110 a.c. A quick check on their battery units shows them to be less flexible than DIG units.

@Twolips

It has several problems:

Simple does not equal quick.

1. It assumes that once you set it, you want to do the same thing every day. Or every other day. Which means I have to remember to go and turn it OFF after it runs.

2. To set the start time, you have to press and hold the + or - button until the time shows. The run time moves 1 minute per press.

So, for example:

I want to run one sprinkler for 2 hours starting at 1:00 p.m today.

So I have to change the start time to 1:00 p.m.

Now I have to change the run time to 2 hours.

Later on, with my overhead system, I want to run it for 4 hours starting at midnight. So now I have to chagne the start time by 11 hours, and change the run time by two hours.

This is my life: I am running 2-3 sprinklers 16-24 hours per day during the warmer times of the year. If it was the same every day, it would be easy to automate, but every day is different. The willows take more water than the spruce. -- longer run time. The maples are in a narrow strip, so I focus the sprinkler (gotta love the aquazoom for this feature) and water for a shorter period. It rained a quarter inch last night. Reduce all the water times today by 30%.

Wind is up. Can't use sprinklers today. So I'll run the drip irrigation and flood irrigation.

Cool today. Use shorter cycles.

Hot today. Sprinklers in the morning and evening, drip during the heat to avoid evaporation.

Getting behind. Run the overhead antelco's on the deciduous strip (1/20 inch per hour) all night. Tomorrow I'll spot water the larger ones.

Right now I use mechanical timers because they work. Set the sprinkler, walk away. It turns off. But that means I have to come back to the trees every two hours to set the next zone up. It takes 50 sprinkler moves/ drip zone connects to water everything. Usually I'm running 2 or 3 at a time, so that means on the average 20-25 trips to the pot yard to play with hoses. This means if I'm potting up, I have to stop what I'm doing, go over to the pot yard. fiddle with sprinklers, walk back to the potting table, and resume work. It means that if I sit down to supper at quarter to six, I have to leave at 5 to 6 to go set spriniklers. And again at 8. And again at 10. When it's warm and I can't keep up, I set an alarm for midnight, and set again, then get up at 5:30.

***
A controller that could remember a bunch of programs might work. I could likely reduce most of my stuff to two, perhaps 3 start times per hose bib, and 3 run times per bib. That would give me 9 programs. It would also need a feature, 'run this program ONCE then stop.'

The easy answer is to drill another well, put a larger breaker on the transformer. At 30 gpm, I could run 8-12 sprinklers at once. That answer is easy, but it's not cheap. 30 gpm means a 2 horse pump which means upgrading the breaker at the pole from 35 amps to 70 amps, which costs $40 per month.

Or I could put a tank large enough to handle all the water my well can produce in a day (At 5 gpm, that's around 8000 gpd) then use a gasoline powered pump to actually irrigate. 10,000 gallon tanks aren't cheap either.

Or I could pump into a dugout (cheaper than tanks) but then I'd need to have some pretty elaborate filtering to keep the drippers happy.

Try looking at irritrol.com and check if the iboc plus will fit your needs. It's battery operated, has three programs and multiple calender settings.

I may have found a solution. It isn't perfect:

The controller is the Toro DDC-WP.

Battery operated.

It has a manual run option, and a rain sensor option.

Manual run allows me to set a sequence of operations, either programs to run, or by individual station.

When entering programs, if I don't set a start time, it will never run. But I can still set a run time, and in manual mode I can make reference to that program.

The controller runs about $100 from online stores. I'll need to get valves with latching solenoids, and I'll have to run wires to the valves, but I can live with that.

By wiring the rain sensor to a switch I can turn the whole thing off. Don't think I need that, but it gives me some assurance that it will do most of what I want.

Any one with experience with this?

I just looked thru the manual on the ddc-wp and while I am not a fan of most toro products this looks to be one of their better designs and should be able to do most of what you want with minimal problems.